The People's Republic of Fub

I have been watching quite a few gaming streams on Twitch.tv lately. basically, you're watching other people play a game. Some also have a face-cam, most have audio to provide a running commentary to the game, and there is a chat-room for the stream as well. It's an oddly social thing: it's like you're sitting on the couch watching someone play, with some banter in the background. The type of banter is of course quite dependent on the streamer and the public they attract.I've been a follower of this one guy. The topics in his chat range from national anthems and language structures to the mechanics of the game he's player. His regulars are a friendly bunch, and it's fun to hang out with these people. So when he mentioned earlier this week that he was going to be playing Dungeon World (a pen-and-paper RPG) this Saturday, I was intrigued. I could even help with the preparation by sharing my guide for setting up a campaign over Google Hangouts.

I have the Dungeon World book -- I got it because the game has a large following. It uses the 'Apocalypse World Engine' -- it's basically a fantasy game based on the rules engine of another game. I've tried to read through the rulebook, but it was not easy to get through: there's lots of jargon that really obfuscates what it is trying to do -- I just couldn't wrap my head around what a 'move' actually is, etcetera.So I thought it would be interesting to watch some people I 'know' play the game, to see how it works and what makes it 'tick'. So when I saw the announcement coming up on Twitter that they'd go live with a Dungeon World session, I joined the Twitch channel. And it turned out that the game had slots for players open, so I was immediately invited to join. Apparently not knowing the rules was not a problem: we'd spend some time going over the rules and creating characters together before starting out. klik was out to the theatre and hadn't come home yet, so I thought: "OK, why not?" I got the link for the Hangout they were using, and off we went!

The total session time was about 2.5 hours, but we spent a good chunk on character creation and discussing the rules. I got to play Hazel, the Halfling Thief, and I had a great time. With the game being streamed on Twitch for a live audience, it wasn't as focussed as my regular Play-by-VOIP games, because you also want to keep an eye out on the chat on Twitch as well. Still, great fun, and we'll probably continue the game somewhere next weekend. I think I understand Dungeon World a lot better, and there are some things in there that work out quite nicely.

You can watch the stream here (if you're interested). Skip to 12:00 because that's when we started creating the characters. The adventure itself kicks off at 55:00.